Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
Restored Image: A tale retold
Chapter five: Troubling Dreams
Once again, he was back in one of the many alleyways of Great Lakes City. Lincoln, once more in the guise of Broken Mirror, was chasing down one of the many members of the violent youth gang, aiming to give the gang member in question a long overdue dose of karma. The gang member tripped and fell, landing face-up as their trip made them spin around slightly. As the gang member laid prone, Lincoln jumped onto them. Taking out his signature butterfly knife, Lincoln raised the deadly blade in a reverse grip, then brought it down into the gang member's neck, swiftly and without hesitation.
After yanking the blade out of the gang member's neck, Lincoln thrusted it into their torso a few times, not stopping until his victim laid forever still. Lincoln panted hard in exhaustion as he got up from his latest kill. As he regarded the gang member he just killed, the white-haired boy became confused. From what he was able to gather on the subject, Lincoln thought that all of the gang members were in his general age group, and yet this person he just killed was clearly tall enough to pass for someone in their late teens. Did the violent youth gang somehow managed to recruit a high schooler, perhaps an adult?
And on that subject, the gang member was wearing a bandanna over their face, covering the lower half of their face entirely. Curious, Lincoln, who wore a face-concealing bandana himself, bent over to remove the bandana from the gang member that he had just slain. After he had removed the bandana, Lincoln saw who he had just killed; he had to cover his mouth, so as to not let out an ear-splitting, horrified scream. Lincoln backed away, step after shaky step, as the blood-stained butterfly knife slipped out of his hand. The white-haired boy could not believe what he had just done, who he had just killed.
Lori. One of his ex-sisters.
Quickly breathing, Lincoln could not find it in himself to calm down. Even with what Lori and the rest of the Louds had done to drive him away, Lincoln would never wish any of them dead. And yet here Lori laid on the ground in an alleyway, never to get up again. All of Lori's hopes, all of her dreams, all of her future, a future that Lori would have undoubtedly shared with someone who Lincoln would have loved to have as a brother-in-law. All of that was now flowing freely out of the oldest Loud sibling as the rich, warm crimson that was staining her lifeless form, stained the ground in the alleyway on which she laid, stained the hands of her younger brother Lincoln.
The one who had taken her life.
…
Lincoln jolted awake in a cold sweat, having jolted into a sitting position after the horrific nightmare he just had. He was panting, shaking, struggling to calm down. Lincoln, as his vision adjusted to the darkness of his bedroom, looked as his hands. Hands that, in his nightmare, had killed someone who Lincoln would never want dead, regardless of what she had done to him. Lincoln's head fell forward, his forehead resting in palms that were slick with a very cold sweat. The white-haired boy breathed shakily as he tried to steady himself.
As he tried to steady himself, he heard a knocking on his bedroom door. After giving a verbal response to invite the person knocking on his door to come in, Lincoln was surprised to see that it was Lori, the very ex-sister who he had killed just moments ago. "Most of us literally heard you talking in your sleep like you were having a nightmare," Lori said, "Are you okay?"
Lincoln was a little surprised to hear what Lori said; was he really making enough of a racket with his tossing and turning in his sleep that most of the girls heard it? Holding up a hand in a gesture to reassure Lori that nothing was wrong, Lincoln said, "It's nothing. Just a bad dream about some Scottish girl's pet bunny setting things on fire."
Lori was a bit confused to hear that the bad dream her brother had was, when you got down to it, rather silly in nature. But as silly as the dream's premise was, it was still bad enough in how it went that it was a bad dream for Lincoln. With a bit of an unsure look on her face, Lori said, "Are you sure you'll be okay?"
"Positive," Lincoln replied before laying back down in bed. Lori took that as her cue to leave Lincoln's room, closing the door behind her. As he laid on his bed, Lincoln looked up at the ceiling in his bedroom; it was bad enough that he woke up from a dream about killing one of his ex-sisters, but the first person he sees after waking up from said dream being the very girl in question? This was all too surreal for the white-haired boy. As he started drifting off to sleep, Lincoln hoped that things would make more sense in the morning.
…
A few minutes after they were all woken up by the sounds of Lincoln tossing and turning in his sleep, the Loud sisters minus Lori watched as Lori herself came walking out of Lincoln's bedroom, closing the door behind her. "Lincoln just had a bad dream," Lori said to the other Loud girls in a concerned tone, "He's going to be fine."
"A bad dream?" Lana repeated in a concerned tone, "Was did Lincoln say it was like? Was it one where mud no longer existed? Or one where frogs were declared illegal? Or one where both mud no longer existed and frogs were declared illegal?!" As Lana looked up with a horrified look on her face, Lola turned to face Lana, regarding her tomboyish older twin sister with a '…really?' kind of expression.
Gently shaking her head, Lori replied, "No, girls." Sighing in a resigned tone, the oldest Loud sister explained, "It was just some really bad but ultimately really silly dream about a Scottish girl's pet bunny setting things on fire."
"That does sound like a really silly dream," Luan remarked in a tone of agreement, "But I can see how it has the potential to be really bad at the same time."
Lori nodded a few times in the affirmative, not bothering to tell the others about her suspicions that Lincoln was actually lying; she was afraid that some of them would try heading into Lincoln's room to pester him about it and ask what kind of dream he really had. If that were to happen, then Lincoln would undoubtedly be very cross, and that was the last thing the girls were needing right now. "I say that we should leave him alone for the rest of the night," Lori said, "Besides, we all need to get some rest as well."
"Ooh, I hope that Linky gets better soon," Leni remarked in a worried tone, "It's really bad to see him suffering from nightmares like this." Seeing as how there was nothing left for any of them to do in this situation, the Loud girls all went back to their respective bedrooms so that they could go back to bed. Lori also had really a point about how they still needed to get some rest; this goes especially so for Lynn, who had a baseball game that was coming up in a few days.
The following morning over at Royal Woods Elementary School, Lincoln and his friends Rusty and Zach were sitting together in the library, studying at one of the tables for a test that they had in a class later that day. As they went over their schoolwork, they heard a familiar female voice call out, "Hey, Lame-o!" Lincoln and his friends looked up from their work and turned to face Ronnie Anne, the owner of that voice. The Queen of Pain was walking up to Lincoln and his friends with a girl who Lincoln didn't recognize.
The girl who was with Ronnie Anne was roughly the same height as Lincoln, his friends and Ronnie Anne herself, so he assumed that the girl was a fifth grader same as them. She had long white hair, wore a white long-sleeved blouse that had an orange-colored sailor-style collar, an orange ribbon laced through a loop around her neck, a dark blue skirt that reached her knees, a pair of loose socks, and a pair of black slip on shoes. Additionally, the white-haired boy could tell just by looking at this new girl that she has some sort of Asian heritage.
Jerking a thumb at the girl who was with her, Ronnie Anne said to Lincoln, "Hey Lame-o, she wants to talk to you about something."
"Umm, Ronnie Anne," the mystery girl began, "Don't you think that referring to him with that name is kind of mean?"
"Relax, Astrid," Ronnie Anne replied, "It's something between the two of us. No need to worry."
"Wait a minute," Lincoln said, a bit surprised to hear what Ronnie Anne had said. Pointing to the new girl, Lincoln continued, "Her name is Astrid? As in that Astrid Ace girl that I keep hearing people talking about?"
With a simple nod, the mystery girl replied, "Yeah. That would be me, alright."
"You know, Astrid," Zach began, "You look kind of different from your brothers Andy and Argent."
"Yeah," Astrid replied, "I show a bit more of my family's Japanese heritage than either Andy or Argent. But I'm getting off subject here." Turning to face Lincoln, Astrid said, "Ronnie Anne told me about how you intimidated both Ross and Chandler. Is that true?"
"Oh, them?" Lincoln asked. With a nod, the white-haired boy said, "Yeah, I guess I did make both of them back off. I wasn't really in the mood to deal with either of them at the time."
Astrid gave an understanding nod before continuing with a slight giggle, "I've been trying to get those two to take a hint and leave me alone. Who could have guessed that I just needed a little help from you?" With a gentle shake of her head, Astrid continued, "Anyway, a friend of me and Ronnie Anne's is having a birthday party today after school at the restaurant that my family owns. If you want, you can swing by."
A bit surprised by Astrid's offer, Lincoln pointed out in a somewhat dry tone, "But I don't even have a gift for your friend. Can you at least give me some time to pick something up before I go to the party?"
"Meet up with me after school, Lame-o," Ronnie Anne said, "I still need to pick something up for Susan myself, and Bobby told me that he'd take me over to the mall so I can buy a birthday gift for her. I'm pretty sure I can convince Bobby to let you come along."
With a slight smile, Lincoln replied, "Thanks, Ronnie Anne." After Ronnie Anne and Astrid took their leave, Lincoln turned to regard Rusty and Zach.
"It still amazes me how you aren't frightened of Ronnie Anne, dude," Rusty remarked in a tone of amazement, "I mean, I still have nightmares about that girl."
"When I heard that Ronnie Anne wasn't really going to move to Great Lakes City after all, I went down to the local church so I could ask the priest to bless me," Zach stated.
"Guys, relax," Lincoln said as he picked up the textbook that he was studying out of, "Ronnie Anne isn't as bad as you're making her out to be. You just need to not to rile her up is all." As the boys resumed their studying, Lincoln thought about how his friends are amazed that he isn't frightened of Ronnie Anne. Although the white-haired boy was, a long time ago, frightened of the Hispanic girl, that had long since passed, especially when Ronnie Anne started acting affectionate towards him. …Well, affectionate in her own way, that is. Yes, Lincoln was no longer frightened of the Hispanic girl.
There were other things that frightened Lincoln, after all.
After classes let out for the day, Lincoln went with Ronnie Anne and Bobby to Royal Woods Mall so that he and Ronnie Anne could both try and find something for Ronnie Anne and Astrid's friend Susan. "Hey, can I ask you something, Bobby?" Lincoln said as he and the Santiago siblings were in one of the mall's many stores.
"What's up, Bro?" Bobby asked.
"Luan told me about how you stopped her in the hallway a short while ago at the High School," Lincoln began, "And that you were giving her a bit of grief about what she and some of my sisters had done." Looking up at the Hispanic teen, Lincoln asked, "Is that true?"
"You said so yourself, Lincoln," Bobby replied, "That crazed prankster is one of your sisters who made your life a living hell and made you run away!" Lincoln sighed; he remembered when Bobby was asking him about why he had run away. As he was expected to name some names, Lincoln mentioned Luan as one of his sisters who worked to make things difficult for him, shifting the blame onto her and a select few others, instead of the sisters as a whole; this also included covering up Lori's involvement, as Lincoln didn't want to put her (Lori's) relationship with Bobby at risk.
"I can appreciate that you're trying to look out for me, Bobby," Lincoln replied, "But you don't have to go so far as to threaten Luan. Besides, Luan's my sister. If she does something, I can deal with it myself." That last part surprised Bobby; from what he was picking up on the matter, Lincoln had apparently reconciled with Luan, one of the four sisters who decided to make his life hell before he ran away. Counting baby Lily, which Lori had previously told him about, Bobby knew that Lincoln had reconciled with two of his sisters
"That's pretty mature of you, bro," Bobby remarked, "Handling your issues like that on your own. You're really getting to be a man, Lincoln." With a bit of an embarrassed look on his face, the Hispanic teen added, "Also, sorry for trying to grill your sister like that. I just can't stand what she and some of the others had done, you know?"
Nodding in an understanding manner, Lincoln replied, "Thanks Bobby." Turning around, Lincoln spotted Ronnie Anne looking at a wall of merchandise, browsing what was in stock. Getting a bit of a mischievous idea, Lincoln said to Bobby just loud enough for Ronnie Anne to hear, "So Bobby, you said that you have a picture of Ronnie Anne back when she was five." Upon hearing Lincoln say that, Ronnie Anne stopped her browsing.
"You mean the one where she's dressed up like a little princess?" Bobby replied, "Yeah, what about it, dude?"
"I don't suppose you that can show me that picture, can you?" Lincoln asked, a hint of mischief in his tone that only Ronnie Anne was able to pick up on; Bobby was completely oblivious.
"Can I show you?" Bobby replied in an almost delighted tone, "Heck, I have it in my wallet!" Reaching into his right back pocket, Bobby said, "It'll take me a minute to fish it out, bro."
"Bobby, don't you dare show that picture to Lincoln!" Ronnie Anne nearly exclaimed as she turned around to point dramatically at her older brother.
"Oh, come on, Nie-Nie," Bobby replied, "It's a really adorable picture of you! Besides, you saw that one baby picture of the bro a while ago when Lori pulled out her family's photo album, so fair is fair."
"ARUGH!" Ronnie Anne cried out in frustrated anger, shaking clenched hands in the air.
After the two fifth graders had gotten gifts for Susan's birthday party, Bobby was driving them to the location of the party. Ronnie Anne, her arms crossed, had a very grumpy look on her face. "…If you tell anyone about what you saw, Lame-o, I will never forgive you," Ronnie Anne said in a clearly peeved tone.
"Why are you so embarrassed about it?" Lincoln asked, "I mean, Bobby was right about how you looked absolutely adorable back then."
To her surprise, Ronnie Anne found her interest was piqued by Lincoln's admission. "…Are you serious?" the Hispanic tomboy asked.
Nodding once in the affirmative, Lincoln said, "Yeah. I mean, what about that picture do you find to be so embarrassing?"
"…I wore glasses back then," Ronnie Anne admitted, a hint of embarrassed blushing on her face. It was true; the picture that Bobby had showed a five-year-old Ronnie Anne dressed in a long-sleeved lavender princess dress, holding a wand, and the little Hispanic girl was wearing what looked like horn-rimmed glasses. With a huff, the Queen of Pain added, "It was embarrassing how I looked with those glasses back then."
"I personally don't see what the big deal is about how you used to wear glassed," Lincoln said, "I mean, Lisa wears glasses, remember?"
"The bro has a point, Nie-Nie," Bobby remarked, "And Lori used to wear glasses too, back when she and I were in middle school." With a gentle shake of his head, Bobby remarked, "A darn shame that I wasn't able to work up the courage to tell Lori that I thought she was really cute until around the time we were both in high school. I kept getting cold feet."
Lincoln merely nodded in response; he remembered what Lori was like back during her Middle School days, during the oldest Loud girl's quote unquote 'awkward phase'. The white-haired boy also fully remembered the day that Lori started to show an active interest in boys, Bobby in particular. It was a day that still pained Lincoln's heart to this day.
It was the day that Lori stopped being his favorite sister.
"Alright, we're here!" Bobby said suddenly, dragging Lincoln out of his thoughts and prompting both him and Ronnie Anne to look out the window. When he looked out the window, Lincoln instantly recognized the restaurant that Bobby had taken him and Ronnie Anne to.
"Odin-Dono's Swedish-Japanese Cuisine?" Lincoln said aloud as he recognized the fusion restaurant that Albert and Myrtle had taken him to lunch at a few days back.
Nodding once in confirmation, Bobby explained, "Yeah, my friend Aggro's family owns this place. It's a Swedish and Japanese place because Aggro's mom and dad were born in Sweden and Japan respectively before they moved here to the states and met each other."
With a curious look on his face, Lincoln turned to face Ronnie Anne and said, "Hey Ronnie Anne, you told me that your friend Astrid's family owns the restaurant that Susan's birthday party was being held at, didn't you?"
"Yeah, and this is it," Ronnie Anne replied with a nod in the affirmative as she pointed out the window, "Bobby's friend Aggro is Astrid's older brother."
"We ought to be heading on inside now," Bobby remarked, "We can't afford to keep the birthday girl and her party waiting, now can we?" Lincoln and Ronnie Anne both nodded in agreement as they followed the Hispanic teen into the fusion restaurant.
A private room in Odin-Dono's was set up for Susan's birthday party. While the girls at the party were all laughing and having a good time, Lincoln was off to the side, talking to Bobby and Bobby's friend Aggro. The male Ace teen had fair skin and long pale blonde hair that trailed down his back in a men's ponytail, save for his bangs which he allowed to frame his face.
Aggro wore a long-sleeved light gray shirt (the ends of the sleeves hanging loosely, not clinging tightly, around the wrists) under a seafoam green men's tank top, a pair of light gray cargo pants help up with a belt, a pair of men's sandals and, oddly enough, a sleeveless haori long coat the same color as his men's tank top.
Aggro also had a pair of white studio headphones (with black circles on the outside of the earpads) hanging around his neck, the cords from the earpads trailing down until they became a single cord that disappeared into the right front pocket of his pants. Similar to Astrid, Aggro displayed more of the Ace family's Japanese heritage than some of the other Ace siblings.
"So, Lincoln," Aggro began as he regarded the white-haired boy, "Astrid told me that you made some troublesome little boy named Ross back down from bothering you." With a look of wry amusement, Aggro continued, "And you did so only by giving the kid a glare. I have to admit, that's pretty impressive."
"Well he was giving me and my friends some trouble, and I was in no mood to deal with him," Lincoln admitted.
Nodding in an understanding manner, Aggro replied, "That's understandable, I suppose."
"If I hear about anyone bothering on Ronnie Anne like that, I'll deal with them personally and right away," Bobby swore. Lincoln suppressed a chuckle after he heard the declaration that Bobby had made; the Hispanic teen obviously isn't aware of the fact that his little sister can handle any bothersome twats like Ross on her own. After successfully suppressing the chuckle, Lincoln let out a yawn; although neither Bobby nor Aggro had noticed Lincoln suppressing a chuckle, they did notice the white-haired boy's yawning.
"Yo Lincoln, are you okay?" Bobby asked Lincoln in a concerned tone, "You look kind of bushed. Did you get enough sleep last night?"
"I…had a very disturbing nightmare," Lincoln admitted with a mildly worried look on his face. Sighing, the white-haired boy continued, "It's got me spooked."
"I don't suppose you'd care to talk about it?" Aggro asked in a gentle and understanding tone, "Bobby and I may not be certified psychologists, but that shouldn't stop us from giving our two cents on the matter and try to help you, Lincoln."
"Yeah," Bobby said in a tone of agreement, "We're bros, and bros stick together."
With a small and sad yet appreciative smile, Lincoln said, "Thanks, but you guys are going to be looking at me weird, not to mention think that I'm slightly creepy."
"We'll see about that," Bobby remarked in something of a dry tone, "You'd be surprised by how eccentric my Grandpa Hector is."
Looking up at Bobby, Lincoln said, "You'll probably be really upset with me when I give you the full details about my bad dream from last night, Bobby."
"Again, try me," the Hispanic teen replied, his tone confident.
Sighing in a mildly resigned tone, the white-haired boy figured that he might as well get this over with. "Okay, here's how the dream began," Lincoln said as he started his story, "I was chasing down someone through an alleyway. When they tripped and fell, I jumped onto them, pulled out a knife, and stabbed them repeatedly until I had killed them."
Both Bobby and Aggro's eyes widened in shock upon hearing the dream that Lincoln was describing. "After I had killed the person," Lincoln continued as he went on with his story, "I saw that they were wearing a bandana over the lower half of their face, so I bent over to remove the bandana." Gulping nervously, Lincoln said, "When I did, I saw that…that the person that I had killed was one of my sisters."
"That…" Aggro remarked in a troubled tone, "…Is a rather troubling dream, I will admit." Shaking his head gently, the Ace teen continued, "I've been made aware about you running away from home sometime ago, along with being given a basic summary of everything around it, by Bobby, including how four of your sisters treating you horrifically is the reason why you ran away from home." With a somewhat serious look on his face, Aggro asked, "Would I be correct in assuming that the sister of yours that you killed in your dream last night is one of the sisters who made you suffer so much that you decided to run away, yes or no?"
Technically, Aggro's guess was rather spot on, as all of Lincoln's sisters had fallen for the bad luck ruse, thus they treated him like he carried the plague. But Lincoln remembered what he had started back in Bobby's relatives' apartment, so he had to act accordingly. With a gentle shake of his head in the negative, Lincoln said in a mildly upset and scared tone, "No. It was Lori."
"It was Lori?!" Bobby nearly exclaimed; if it wasn't for the party distracting them, the other kids would have heard the Hispanic teen shout just now.
With a mildly sad look on his face, Lincoln said as he looked up at Bobby, "That's why I said that you'd probably be really upset with me if I went into detail about my bad dream from last night, Bobby."
Inhaling and exhaling, Bobby said in a(n admittedly mildly strained) tone, "No, bro, no. I'm not really that upset. Lori and the others were tricked into playing along, so it'd be understandable if you were really upset with them, even on some sort of unconscious level."
"Bobby has a point," Aggro remarked as he turned to face Lincoln, "The way your sisters had betrayed you, even those who were tricked, is not something that one can forgive easily."
Lincoln nodded once or twice in thanks for the older boys acknowledging and sympathizing with him. But the white-haired boy's conscious was still mildly troubled. "What am I going to do, though?" Lincoln asked, "I mean, I would never do anything like what I did in my dream to any of my sisters, even the ones who worked together to drive me away. And yet in the bad dream, I killed one of my older sisters, in cold blood." His eyes widening a bit out of being freaked out, Lincoln said, "What if I'm losing my mind? What if I'm turning into some sort of monster?!"
"You aren't a monster, bro," Bobby said, getting Lincoln to stop mid-freak out and look up at him and Aggro. "You aren't a monster," the Hispanic teen reiterated, "You aren't turning into one, either."
"Bobby's right," Aggro remarked in a tone of agreement, "You yourself had just said that you would never take the life of one of your sisters, even the ones that had made you suffer. Were you serious when you said that?"
"Yes," Lincoln replied, his tone firm and serious.
"And your dream from last night has you feeling disturbed," Aggro went on, "Would that be accurate to say, yes or no?"
"It's perfectly accurate, yes," Lincoln said.
With a mild smile, Aggro explained, "In that case Lincoln, you are by no means a monster. If your dream from last night didn't have you feeling disturbed on some level, then that would be cause for alarm. But your dream did disturb you, making you see things that you would never want to do in real life." With a confident nod, the Ace teen added, "Bobby is right when he says that you are by no means a monster, nor are you turning into one."
With another appreciative smile that seemed a little bit sad, Lincoln said, "Thanks."
"Hey, it's no big deal, bro," Bobby remarked, "And hey, this lets me pay you back for when you helped me sort through that one nightmare that I had."
Chuckling a bit this time, Lincoln said, "Yeah, Bobby. I don't really see Lori ever wanting to break up with you."
With a bit of an amused hum, Aggro turned to face Bobby and said, "Mmm, you're pretty lucky, Bobby. You managed to find yourself in a relationship, yet I myself am still single."
"It's not like you've ever tried to get a girlfriend, dude," Bobby replied when he turned to face his Swedish/Japanese friend, "Although with how many girls at school have been scoping you out, I'm surprised that you haven't tried to give any of them a shot." With a mildly suspicious look on his face, Bobby asked, "You aren't hoping to try and steal Lori from me, are you?"
"Nonsense," Aggro answered, a hand on his hip as he waived the index finger of his other hand back and forth, "I have no such interest in Lori." Lowing his hand that he had up, Aggro continued, "Besides, she's one of the girls on the varsity golf team that's been practically hounding Allison to join them. If I started dating one of those girls, Allison would never let me hear the end of it." With a mildly amused look on his face, Aggro added, "Also, I was kind of hoping that I would get to be your best man when you and Lori tie the knot."
"Bro…" Bobby replied in a genuinely touched tone, tears welling up in the corners of his eyes, "…Dude." The Hispanic teen then threw his arms around his Swedish/Japanese friend to draw him into a bro-hug. As the white-haired boy watched the scene unfold in mild confusion, Ronnie Anne came walking up over to him.
"Hey Lame-o," Ronnie Anne began in a casual tone, "Astrid's mom was able to get some Swedish candy for the party, and it is out of this-" The Queen of Pain stopped short when she saw that her older brother was hugging the Ace teen. "…Why did my older brother have to be such an overly emotional goof?" Ronnie Anne said in a deadpan tone.
END, RESTORED IMAGE: A TALE RETOLD CHAPTER FIVE
Author's note:
Although this chapter, for the most part, is generally the same as it was in the original, there are a few big changes in order to fit the new narrative, chief among them being that Lori wasn't the sister who Lincoln killed in his dream in the original. Lori's new involvement in this regard will be a plot point that'll be cropping up later down the line, mark my words.
Anyway, the next chapter I intend to use to further develop Chandler and his character arc in this story. Although Chandler is still going to play something of an antagonistic role, I'll be working to try and make him far more sympathetic.